


Men reap what they sow

by Elisexyz



Series: Closer at heart [4]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amnesiac Henry Mills (Once Upon a Time), Baelfire | Neal Cassidy Lives, Fix-It, Gen, Hook Accidentally Messing Shit Up, Mother-Son Relationship, Post-Episode: s03e15 Quiet Minds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-12 04:03:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19124185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisexyz/pseuds/Elisexyz
Summary: Regina has a lot on her mind at the moment. Being jealous of Henry should be the least of her concerns.(Operative word being "should".)





	Men reap what they sow

**Author's Note:**

> I mean. I wasn't going to let poor Regina wallow in her misery forever.  
>  Swanfire took a bit of a backseat in this one, sorry about that, but I needed to start moving the other characters around to have everybody where I need them. ~~I love how this makes me sound like I know what I'm doing.~~ I hope you'll enjoy it anyway!

Regina has a lot to worry about right now.

She has an half-sister who is out for her blood and in complete control of probably the only guy who can outmatch her in this town, the latest meeting to try and decide what to do about it was only good to highlight the obvious, meaning that they need to get that damn dagger as soon as possible, but they have no solid plan, besides using Emma’s magic as a weapon. Right now, Regina is supposed to mentally plan Emma’s first magic lesson, actually.

The fact that Henry doesn’t remember her should take a backseat in front of all this, because it isn’t a life-threatening problem and it’s only her own business. Her jealousy _definitely_ should take a backseat.

Nevertheless, she’s currently sitting at the diner, not so discretely spying on Henry as Neal keeps him occupied, so that Emma can freely worry about her official Savior business.

It’s unfair, that she’d be the only one of Henry’s parents not to get _anything_. Emma has a whole life of fake memories to make sure that Henry loves her to bits, and apparently Neal managed to explain away his absence for the first decade of his life, _again_ , whereas _she_ is just ‘Madame Major’.

It’s unfair.

(Or perhaps, it’s just karma, but that doesn’t ease the knot in her stomach one bit, nor does it make her any less jealous. She was the only one to be there for the first ten years of Henry’s life, and he doesn’t even _remember_ her.)

Neal, maybe feeling observed, turns in her direction as Henry laughs at something he said, and Regina doesn’t evade his eyes in time. He frowns, and she feels a big nice wave of shame wash through her, her cheeks probably bursting into flames as she decides that she’s been getting distracted long enough: it’s time to at least _attempt_ to do something productive.

She’s about to try and quickly get out of there, while she may have a little bit of her dignity left still, but Neal calls out for her, apparently deciding that he can’t grant her the courtesy of a quick escape.

She turns in his direction, and Henry is staring too, so what is she supposed to do?

“Hi,” she says, walking up to them and forcing out a smile, hoping that the murder in her eyes is shining clearly enough.

“Guess what, this is my son!” Neal declares, lightly, apparently unfazed by her desire to throttle him and acting like that’s supposed to be news for her.

“Is he?” she asks, slowly, her tone pleasant enough.

What is he getting at, exactly?

“Yeah!” He turns to Henry. “Henry, have you met Regina?”

“Uh, yeah. Hello, Madame Major.” Henry offers her the polite smile you would a strange adult. Her stomach twists painfully.

“Well, Regina is my sister,” Neal declares, casually, and it takes a lot of self-control for Regina not to do a double take and stare at him like a gaping fish.

“Really?” Henry frowns, confused. “But isn’t your last name Cassidy?”

“Yeah,” Neal shrugs. “We have the same mom,” he adds then, so naturally that you’d think it actually true. “Technically, she’s my half-sister, but, you know— same difference.”

Henry turns towards her with a smile so bright that her stomach takes a leap.

“Cool!” he says, excitedly. “This makes you my aunt!”

She can’t help smiling a little. “I— yeah, I guess it does.”

“Do wanna sit with us?” Henry immediately adds, sliding towards his right to make room for her, and Regina could honestly just start crying right then and there at the invitation, at Henry’s not so indifferent anymore gaze.

“Of course, I’d love to,” she manages to get out, unable to tear her eyes off Henry as she sits beside him.

(If this is a dream, please just don’t wake her up.)

 

“Oh, hey, look,” Neal quickly says, leaning towards her, when Henry steps away for a minute to take Emma’s call. It takes Regina a moment too long to realize that he’s talking, because she’s still too hung up on the fact that Henry was actually _seeing_ her. “I know it’s not the same—”

“No,” she interrupts, holding up her hand. “It’s not. But it’s something.” She pauses, looking at him in the eyes as she offers a small smile. “Thank you.”

She isn’t sure she could have survived being ‘Madame Major’ for a minute longer.

 

 

-

 

 

It isn’t really _his_ fault, alright?

Zelena tricked him! He was _tricked_.

Stupidity may be considered a fault, alright, but how was Killian supposed to know that he wasn’t talking with Ariel, that he was trying to make amends with an illusion and that it was actually Zelena seeking to curse him for her own purposes?

(That’s what you get for trying to right your wrongs, apparently. He should have learned it by now.)

Now he’s stuck with cursed lips, orders to somehow steal a kiss from Emma Swan – the woman that he promised he would keep his hands off of; not that he really _minds_ , but he gave his word – so that her powers are out of the equation, and should he fail, Henry is going to face the consequences. That’s just wonderful.

Even _more_ wonderful is fate making fun of him and making him stumble across Baelfire, his kid and Regina walking around without a care in the world. A little group that contains two of the three people that he least wants to see right now.

Nevertheless, he’s a pirate and a liar, so when they come face to face he can summon a decent grin and ask what they are doing walking around.

Henry excitedly informs him that apparently Regina has now been promoted to his aunt, which seems to be the loophole they’ve found to include her into his family, and Killian just can’t stop thinking about how if he doesn’t _do_ it, if he doesn’t steal Emma’s magic, he’s going to condemn him.

Why is he always going around ruining little boys, exactly? Hell, the reason why he ended up engulfed in Storybrooke’s crap is that he couldn’t bring himself to screw over Henry the way he did with his father, and he ended up helping with the rescue mission on Neverland.

_Why_ is it that can’t he just mind his own business for a change?

Let’s take Baelfire in and hide him from Pan, that seems like a wonderful idea, he has intel on how to hurt the Dark One after all.

(And then he gets attached.)

Let’s go back to Storybrooke with the magic bean, he just needs to hand it over and then go back to minding his own business after all, easy, right?

(And then he gives everybody a ride to Neverland.)

Let’s try to help Ariel reunite with her lover, fixing your wrongs is important after all, isn’t it?

(And then he gets _cursed_.)

Feeling observed, he raises his eyes on Baelfire without thinking it over, and finds that he’s frowning at him in a way that makes Killian’s blood run cold and warning bells go off in his head.

_Ah, crap_ —

“Hey, do you mind if I talk alone with Hook here for a minute?” Baelfire asks, before Killian can come up with an exit strategy.

Regina looks very suspicious of the sudden request, but soon enough she and Henry decide to go ahead, while Baelfire promises to catch up later.

Killian elects that faking complete ignorance is probably his best play here.

“What did you do?” Baelfire immediately demands.

“Nothing,” he says, as casually as he can. “What are you talking about?”

Baelfire gives him a very exasperated look, which is uncalled for at the very beginning of a conversation, he might add. That boy has _no_ patience. “I _know_ that face,” Baelfire insists. “That’s your guilty face. So what did you do?”

Killian scoffs. “Oh, because you know me _so_ well now, don’t you?”

“Probably not,” he concedes, unimpressed. “But I do know your guilty face, and you look like you’ve just killed a puppy, so, again, what the hell did you do?”

“I didn’t _do_ anything, okay?” Killian insists, defensively, which is true, as of now. More or less. He got played, but that’s not something he _did_. Not technically.

“Okay, what is it then?”

Killian sighs. Baelfire was stubborn as a boy and he seems to be even _more_ stubborn now, he’s pretty sure that there aren’t many chances that he’ll manage to get him to drop it without giving him _something_ , at least an admission that there _is_ something going on.

“Look,” Killian sighs. “You trusted me to get Emma and Henry here, right?” Baelfire concedes the point with a brief gesture. “So trust me on this too: telling you will only make things worse.”

Hell, Zelena could find out and have Henry’s head for it.

Baelfire clenches his jaw, and he looks far from convinced. “I _want_ to trust you,” he says. “But I have my reservations. I think it’s my common sense talking. And don’t think I didn’t notice how you’ve been staring at Henry.” _Ah, bloody hell_. “If my son is involved, I’m not trusting anybody with shit. Spit it out.”

Apparently, he doesn’t have much of a choice.

“Not here,” he finally says, hoping that he isn’t making a grave mistake.

 

 

-

 

 

“So he’s supposed to _kiss_ me?” Emma says, raising her eyebrows sceptically and crossing her arms.

“Apparently,” Neal mutters, throwing his hands up.

They are all gathered in the Charmings’ loft, with Henry upstairs supposedly catching up with homework and protection charms all over the place.

Regina can’t really believe the stupidity that she’s hearing here.

“How do you get played like that? Seriously?” she says, looking at Hook like he’s the stupidest being to ever walk _any_ land – and, to be fair, he might be.

“How was I supposed to know that instead of apologizing I was being tricked into getting cursed?!” he protests.

“This wouldn’t happen if you weren’t a dick to people,” Neal comments, grimly.

“That’s helpful, Neal, thank you.”

“I wasn’t trying to be helpful, I was trying to insult you.” Hook opens his mouth to reply, but Neal interrupts him: “You weren’t even going to tell any of us about this! You could have gotten Henry killed!”

“Okay, okay, keep your voice down,” Emma immediately reprimands, glancing upstairs. Regina follows suit, but if Henry is listening he’s well hidden. “You _should_ have told us,” Emma adds, glaring daggers at Hook. “Don’t ever pull anything like this again or I’ll skin you myself, I swear.”

Hook only nods, and Regina feels a rush of pride at the threat, mentally deciding that she wants to help, if it comes to that.

“Our main problem is, Henry is in danger, what do we do about it?” Emma adds, leaning back against her chair and taking a look around, waiting for suggestions.

Regina sure as hell knows what to do: she’s going to take Henry and wrap him in a magic bubble so powerful that Zelena won’t even be able to walk within fifty feet of it. Problem solved.

“You can’t lose your magic,” Snow immediately supplies. “That’s our only way to defeat Zelena.”

“But if I _don’t_ take her magic, she will go after Henry,” Hook reminds them.

“We heard you the first time,” Regina says, tightly. The last thing that she needs is a reminder of his colossal stupidity, she already wants to punch him in the face enough as it is.

“We could go on the offense,” David suggests, unsurprisingly. “Take her out before she can take Emma’s magic.”

“We do know where she keeps Rumple,” Belle offers.

“Yes, and we also have no firepower to stop him if he tries to kill us,” Regina points out, not for the first time: they already had this discussion, and in spite of the confidence that she has in her own abilities there is no way that she can take on Rumple and keep everybody else safe while also taking on Zelena. Emma is powerful, but she’s inexperienced, she’d need a lot of help as of now. They are not ready for a frontal fight, period.

“I’m sure we could distract him long enough for Emma to take out Zelena and one of us to get their hands on the dagger,” David says, confidently, to which Regina merely rolls her eyes.

“I think we should focus on what to do about Henry first,” Emma intervenes. “Find a way to protect him while we try to come up with a decent plan against Zelena.”

“He could stay with me,” Regina offers, trying to be casual about it. The idea popped into her head as soon she found out that he was in danger to begin with, actually: she can keep him safe, she _knows_ she can, and she’s dying to have him around. “I can set up some protection spells, make sure Zelena doesn’t get anywhere near him and fight her off if she somehow does.”

“Henry would probably agree with it,” Neal points out, shrugging. “He thinks she’s his aunt.”

“Since when?” Emma frowns, looking alternatively between the two of them and waiting for an explanation. She doesn’t seem upset, but Regina’s shoulders tense anyway.

“Since today,” she says, defensively.

“Okay, but why?”

“Well, I couldn’t exactly tell him that she’s his mother too, now, right?” Neal shrugs. “So I told him she’s my sister. Half-sister. Whatever, point is, we wouldn’t be dropping him off with a stranger.”

Emma gives him a disgustingly besotted look, apparently appreciating the good will, then she turns towards Regina, whose shoulders relax a little at the still soft expression.

“Sounds good to me,” she announces, casually. “I’m sure that’s as safe as he can be.”

“But Regina is our most experienced magic user,” Belle points out. “If she is looking out for Henry all the time, we can’t take on Rumple for sure.”

“And I was supposed to teach Emma how to use magic too,” Regina points out, reluctantly. She does want to spend all the time she can with Henry, but that isn’t of much use if they can’t get the Savior to take out Zelena and she’s still a danger. She surely can’t train Emma in front of Henry, not while he doesn’t remember.

“We could look after Henry while you teach her,” Snow offers, with a shrug.

“If Zelena tried to get to him, you’d die like flies,” Regina points out, drily.

“Just take up some protections and trust us to give you a call if things go South,” David replies, crossing his arms. “But she wouldn’t be the first witch that we take on, you know?”

Regina snorts.

“So this is it?” Neal asks, pursing his lips. “Henry stays at Regina’s, Emma gets some, uh, magic training, and when she’s ready we go up against Zelena and hope we don’t get killed?”

“I’ve worked with stupider plans,” Hook declares, throwing a shit-eating grin in the mix.

Regina can only hope to survive this mess.

 

 

-

 

 

“I don’t understand,” Henry protests, for about the millionth time, as Emma checks his bag to make sure that everything that he’s supposed to have is there.

“I told you, it’s just for a while and just to be safe,” Emma says, offering the best comforting smile that she can come up with. She doesn’t want to _frighten_ him, but he already knows that she’s after bad people and that there’s a lot going on in this town, she didn’t have to offer many more details.

“Okay, but doesn’t it make more sense to stay with Dad then?”

Right. “He’s—he’s too involved in this, kid,” she explains, with an helpless shrug. “It wouldn’t be much safer to stay with him than with me. Regina has a big house, and a good, uh, alarm system. And it’s just for a while.”

“Okay,” Henry mumbles, but he still doesn’t look convinced.

Emma gets it: in their fake memories, it’s always been the two of them, _only_ the two of them, and Emma was always a little reluctant to even let him spend the night at a friend’s house. She let him, a couple of times, but they were rarely away from each other throughout the night, so she can understand why her suddenly making him move into an half-stranger’s house would bother him.

“Hey, look,” she says, gently, inviting him to come closer for a hug. “It will be alright, I’ll visit, and I’m always a phone call away. I just need you to be somewhere safe until we sort this stuff out, that’s all, okay?”

“These people are worse than usual, aren’t they?” he mumbles, his cheek pressed against her chest.

“Uh, yeah,” she says, slowly, stroking his hair. “But it’s gonna be alright. I have all the help I need, I’m gonna get them. I always do.”

Henry just nods.

 

 

-

 

 

“So, this is your room,” Regina announces, with a smile that’s an attempt at making it sound casual.

She can’t help glancing anxiously at Henry as he looks in astonishment at what’s _literally_ his room, and a part of her hopes that that will be enough to restore his memories once and for all.

Obviously, she isn’t so lucky.

“Oh, I like it!” Henry says, brightly, as he turns towards her. “Whose room is it?”

“I, uhm—” She hesitates. “I had a son,” she finally says, and she doesn’t know what her face is doing right now, but his expression falls really fast.

“Oh. What happened to him?” he asks, curious as a cat, as always.

“I lost him,” Regina sighs, giving him a sad smile. “It’s complicated,” she adds then, because she isn’t sure how she could explain it to him if he asked any more details. Her son is right _there_ , he just doesn’t know who she is.

“I’m sorry,” Henry says, quietly, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

“That’s okay,” Regina replies, gently, eager to move the conversation along. “So, how would you like me to fix you some hot cocoa?”

The way Henry’s expression brightens is so familiar that it makes she her heart ache.

(But he’s there, so that’s something.)

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including: 
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> If you don’t want a reply, for any reason, feel free to sign your comment with “whisper” and I will appreciate it but not respond!


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